Considerable new machinery is expected to be purchased very shortly by the Mexican Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, of San Pedro, State of Durango, Mexico.

The São Paulo Light and Power Company, of São Paulo, Brazil, will be in the market shortly for additional equipment, which will necessitate the expenditure of considerably over $1,000,000.

The Pinos Altos Mines Company is to construct a large reduction plant on its property at Pinos Altos, Mexico.

BOOK NOTES.

Books and pamphlets sent to the International Bureau of the American Republics, and containing subject-matter bearing upon the countries of the International Union of American Republics, will be treated under this caption in the Monthly Bulletin.

The rapid increase in the production of durum wheats in the United States, and the fact that, whatever may be their opinions as to the comparative value of these wheats, the grain men and millers of the country will have to handle them in annually increasing quantities give special interest to a bulletin issued by the Department of Agriculture on the "Commercial Status of Durum Wheat." This bulletin is the joint work of Prof. MARK A. CARLETON, the wheat expert of the Department, and Dr. JOSEPH S. CHAMBERLAIN, of the Bureau of Chemistry. The rapidity with which the cultivation of these durum wheats, or, as they are popularly known, macaroni wheats, is being developed in the United States is shown by the statistics of production within the last few years. The first year in which any considerable amount of durum wheat was grown in the United States was 1901, when the total yield was estimated at 60,000 to 70,000 bushels. Professor CARLETON's estimate for the yield of 1902 was about 2,000,000 bushels, or a little less. For the crop of 1903 his estimate was between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000 bushels. He estimates the yield for the present year at not less than 15,000,000 bushels, and thinks it may run as high as 20,000,000 bushels. A yield of 20,000,000 bushels would make one twenty-fifth of an average annual production of 500,000,000 bushels. The reasons for the rapid increase in the production of these wheats, in the face of the opposition of many millers and grain handlers, are to be found in their peculiar adaptability to the climate of the semiarid regions of the country, good crops being obtained in regions where

ordinary wheats would fail utterly, and in their comparative immunity from rust. The special qualities of commercial value in the durum wheat are thus summarized in the bulletin: "In the strictly semiarid districts it usually ripens earlier than other spring wheats. This allows the wheat a greater chance to escape insect fungous pests and thus insures a plumper, finer kernel. Freedom from rust and smut is still further insured by the natural resistance of this wheat to the attacks of such fungi. The importance of smut resistance in the fields of the Northwest is manifest to those who are aware of the great damage to wheat from this cause in that region. Hard spring and winter wheats are known to produce a harder, better grain in the drier districts and in dry seasons. Durum wheat, being particularly adapted to such conditions, always furnishes an excellent hard grain without a corresponding decrease in yield. Accompanying this drouth resistance and hardness of grain is a corresponding increase in the quantity and quality of the gluten. In the analyses of flour and bread it is shown that the sugar content of durum wheat is considerably greater than that of other wheats. Even a small percentage of difference in this respect is of great importance to the baker during a year's operations. The extreme dryness of the durum wheat grain in a good season gives the flour a great power of absorption, which, other conditions being equal, allows the baker to obtain more loaves from the same weight of flour, and in some cases would thus give this wheat a great advantage over other wheat flours of less absorption."

A "Report on the Trade of the Consular District of Veracruz for the Year 1903," issued in August, 1904, forms the subject of No. 3262 of the annual series of diplomatic and consular reports published by the British Foreign Office. Consul Leay states that the Mexico of to-day is not the country of ten or fifteen years ago. It has a population of 15,000,000, with 12,000 miles of railway and a constantly developing traffic. He also shows that Great Britain, during the year of reference, not only held her own in commercial intercourse with the Mexican Republic, but in some cases increased her traffic. In the latter connection, coal, coke, patent fuel, cottons, earthen and china ware, electric-lighting apparatus, hardware, linens, metals, silk manufactures, manufactures of wood, and woolens and worsteds. Cements, however, continued to show a decline from English sources, owing to Belgian and German competition, while in machinery and millwork the consul reports that Germany and the United States are slowly crowding out British competition. In regard to coal, coke, and patent fuel, the United Kingdom controls half the trade, the United States sending coal equal in quantity to these, while all the patent fuel comes from the United Kingdom.

In a review of the trade of Costa Rica for the year 1903, issued as No. 3259 of the annual series of diplomatic and consular reports published by the British Foreign Office in August, 1904, Consul Cox states that during the year in reference the trade of Costa Rica increased in a very marked degree. The coffee crop for the year was far above the average, and the protective duties established in 1902 upon foodstuffs capable of being produced in the country had due effect in the case of beans and rice, the home-grown supply of which caused a sensible decrease in the quantity imported. With these exceptions the increase in imports was of a general character, showing an increase of 10.79 per cent over the preceding year, while exports showed an increase of 29.32 per cent. He also reports that the preponderance of the United States in imports to Costa Rica is due to the proximity of that Republic, the excellent communication existing between the two countries, and to the banana trade, which is constant throughout the year.

"Dun's Review" for October 7, 1904, prints a paper from its regular correspondent in the Republic of Cuba, .showing the generally improved conditions prevailing throughout the island, the statement being made that conditions in Cuba are better than at any time since 1895, and have gradually improved during the year. The sugar crop harvested this year was the largest since 1894 and it has been sold by the planters at remunerative prices, while even more handsome profits have been realized by speculators. The distribution of about $3,000,000, employed for the purchase of claims of the Cuban revolutionary army, has contributed in no small degree to the improved financial situation. Confidence seems at last to have been fully restored, hoarded money has been put into circulation, and commercial enterprises have taken on new life. Imports and exports for the first eight months of this year have been largely in excess of the same period in 1903, and while no official figures of either have been published, the probabilities are that exports will reach $90,000,000 and imports something over $75,000,000. It is known that in imports the United States has suffered, if not an actual loss, at least a comparative one, and that European countries have reaped the benefit. In anticipation of an expected increase in duties about January 1, to offset supposed losses in revenue, due to the treaty of reciprocity with the United States, Cuban merchants placed heavy orders in Europe, laying in six or eight months' supply of goods in practically all lines, except provisions, which materially affected the proportion of imports of goods of American manufacture during that period.

The second volume of Mr. THOMAS C. DAWSON'S "South American Republics" has been received by the Columbus Memorial Library, and completes the historical setting for the various countries of South America not dealt with in Volume I. Mr. DAWSON is at present the American Minister to Santo Domingo, and has had unusual opportunities to study his subject. This history begins when Pizarro and Almagro, Valdivia and Benalcazar, led their desperadoes across the isthmus to the conquest, massacre, and enslavement of the prosperous and civilized millions who inhabited the Pacific coast of South America. It ends with the United States opening a way through the same isthmus for the ships, the trade, the capital of the world, with American engineers laying railroad iron on the imperial highway of the Incas, with British bondholders forgiving stricken Peru's national debt, with their debtor bravely facing the fact of bankruptcy, and turning over to them all its railways. The American people, alert, practical, keen, possessing in their press and Congress admirable organizations for the collection and dissemination of exact knowledge, already fully appreciate the advantages that will accrue to the United States itself from the building of the Panama Canal. Hardly less thoroughly do they understand the probable effect upon eastern Asia and the great commercial nations of western Europe. Few, however, have yet reflected upon the canal's vital importance to the peoples of the Pacific coast of South America. Mr. DAWSON takes up these particular countries. and in a most interesting and intelligent way traces the past, present, and future of Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia.

Under the title "Great Argentine," FRANCISCO SEEBER has prepared an interesting volume comprising a comparative study of the Argentine Republic, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, and Paraguay. While the author frankly expresses his opinion as to the benefits that might be derived from a quasi-political union of the States mentioned, he acknowledges that the diversity of institutions and aims is at present too great to admit of such concert. He states, however, that though the idea may be premature, the examination of the economic interests which affect every one of these countries, the study of their laws, of their wealth and civilization, the comparison of their respective productive and economic capacities, may serve for preparing the bases of a future union, and, what is more important, of an actual approximation tending to the unification of money and to the facilitation of communication, shortening the length of time required for voyages to Europe and the United States, and with it a political entente offering greater guaranties of peace and even of mutual defense against aggressions.

The "Annual Review of the Foreign and Internal Commerce of the United States" for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904, which appears in the July "Summary of Commerce and Finance," contains many statements regarding the commerce, finances, production, transportation, etc., of the United States, for which frequent inquiries are now being made. Great care has been exercised to bring them down to the latest possible date, with the purpose of supplying the latest and most complete information possible to those desiring the same. Attention is especially called to the tables "Progress of the United States in its material industries," to which the figures of the fiscal year 1904 have been added wherever possible, thus supplying the very latest available data in regard to the commerce, production, transportation, finance, currency, population, etc., of the country; while the tables showing the commerce, revenue, expenditure, currency, etc., of the principal countries of the world, have also been brought down to the latest available date. Tables show the imports and exports by articles during the fiscal year 1904 compared with 1902 and 1903. The totals of the trade of the United States with each of the principal countries of the world in each year from 1894 to 1904 are also shown. Another series of tables show the growth in exportation of manufactures, as also the growth in commerce with the noncontiguous territory of the United States.

The Argentine Department of Agriculture in its Division of Forestry, has published in a separate pamphlet, "Notes upon Argentine Flora," being extracts from GUSTAVO NIEDERLEIN'S Work "La Riqueza Florestal de la República Argentina." The importance attached to forest exploitation is evidenced by the statement made at the close of the pamphlet that "if the extraordinary economic development of the United States be studied we find that it is due in the first place to the exploitation of its forests." The Argentine forests are but little less extensive than those of the United States, and possess a collection of woods classified under 405 species, 169 genera, and 58 general families.

A Spanish and English edition of a valuable and interesting pamphlet entitled "The Republic of Cuba," compiled for distribution at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, has been received at the Columbus Memorial Library, and, having been published under the auspices of Hon. MANUEL LUCIANO DIAZ, Secretary of Public Works of the Cuban Republic, the data and information contained therein is necessarily reliable and up-to-date. The various industries of the island, economic conditions, and future prospects are outlined in a concise and interesting manner.